By David Astle
Yeehaw, folx! What a sitch! I’m still vibing from the adorbs inspo. In case you missed the news, the seventh edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 2022) has accepted over 500 new words, including the six bits of slang in my opening convo. Make that seven – convo is kosher, too.
Regarding the dictionary’s absent apostrophe, I’m baffled. The title you just read is intact – no apostrophe in sight – so please don’t at me. At, in fact, is now okayed as a verb. Quipsters on Twitter are fond of the ploy, tagging a divisive opinion with a plea to readers not to drag them into any resultant debate. For example: “Cancel Christmas. Don’t at me.”
Once again, Scrabblers have looked beyond textbook English to help “embiggen” their scores.Credit: iStock
Consequently, at is extendible on the Scrabble rack, allowing for ats, atted and atting. Tournament jedis (another intake) are ecstatic. Though nowhere near as jubilant as when qi (the vital energy of Eastern medicine) and za (short for pizza) were part of the 2006 makeover. Two-letter arrivals are gold, especially if they smuggle a heavy consonant.
For that’s the deeper story below the word list. Should I confirm vax as legit, plus vaxx (to vaccinate), and the follow-on forms of vaxxed and vaxxing, then you may gripe. Your puritan impulse will lament how far our language has lapsed. Scrabblers, on the other hand, look beyond textbook English. Amirite (SMS slang for “am I right?”) is less a slip in grammatical vigilance than an invitation to claim a bonus 50 for using all your tiles.
The new edition of Merriam-Webster’s Scrabble bible.Credit: Merriam-Webster
To Nigel Richards, the all-conquering Kiwi of the tiles, words are less meanings than patterns. Vax, say, is a neat tool to annex ax, or score big on a Triple Letter, while vaxx entails the waste of a blank, as there’s only one X in the box. To prove such a strategic mindset, consider Richards winning the French Championship in 2015, and then 2018, despite not speaking the language. Amazing, amirite?
Where Scrabble agnostics will view guac as a needless snip of guacamole, true racketeers perceive a clunk-dump, namely a word allowing you to shed a few incompatible letters in order to refresh any future moves. Though Emmett Brosowsky, an American teen star, can also appreciate the dictionary update at a cultural level. “It’s nice to see pieces of my own vernacular start to be usable in Scrabble,” he told a recent Slate piece. “It’s almost a form of representation.”
Making zuke and spork matter. Not just gimmicks, no mere handy k-options, but evidence of English evolving, and gameplay matching that rejuvenation. Away from text-talk, or colloquial truncations, the overhaul also welcomes such exotica as hygge (the Danish ideal of snugness) and iftar, the sundown meal to ease the daily Ramadan fast.
Word by imported word, the new list signals how omnivorous our language has become, widening the Edwardian village we once called home. Teatime may now entail matcha (a powdered Japanese tea), kabocha pumpkin and maybe mofongo, the pickled bananas of Puerto Rico if you’re truly hangry.
Compounds embody another subset, as modern writers jettison hyphens, or seal the gaps, across their prose. Consider autofill and pageview, deepfake and spitball, deadname and babymoon.
Despite the fanfare, however, you may stand in oppo (another intake) to such skeezy (repulsive) additions, yelling ixnay (slang term for veto) at this whole thingie (yep, that’s in too). Pushed to shove, you may even succumb to grawlix (the sweary symbols of cartoons), yet 500 new words represent less a bleak day for English than a chance to embiggen your Scrabble ammo, amirite? And your score.
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